Always Prepared

In yesterday’s post I talked about impromptu/emergency weapons –weapons that you can use in a pinch.

Another weapon might be called “semi-impromptu.” You plan ahead, carefully selecting an item that is natural to your environment. I mentioned that as a teacher at a rough school I bought a heavy pair of steel scissors in case I had trouble. As a teacher, it would not be out of place if I had a pair of scissors with me.

Another example of planning ahead is a former cop I met who was horribly overweight and had health problems, so he decided to get rid of his car and to ride his bike everywhere. (By the way, he lost weight and got into great shape.) Whenever he thought there might be trouble, he got out his bicycle pump, like the kind pictured on the left. While it was not the ideal weapon, he always had it with him.

Once he got wind of an unruly guy at a convenience store, so he got off his bike and took his pump with him.

How many martial artists in the same circumstance would have had their weapons with them? Their nunchakus (a felony in California), their bo staffs, machetes, rattan or kamagong sticks, shinai, bokken, samurai swords, etc.

How conspicuous and provocative would these martial artists have looked going into a store with a three sectional staff? (“Well, officer, some crazy guy came into the store with big-a** numchucks.”)

For those who carry knives, what are you going to do, stab a drunk because he was double-dipping at the soda fountain and dropping f-bombs?

The cyclist with his pump was able to legally and inconspicuously arm himself. There was nothing threatening or out-of-place to see a cyclist with a pump.

Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel talked of seeing a video of a farmer who destroyed two trespassing punks with his shovel. In the farmer’s case, a shovel was a tool he always had with him and was something he felt comfortable wielding.